This article discusses the research strategy of theory building from cases, particularly multiple cases. Such a strategy involves using one or more cases to create theoretical constructs, propositions, and/or midrange theory from case-based, empirical evidence. Replication logic means that each case serves as a distinct experiment that stands on its own merits as an analytic unit. The frequent use of case studies as a research strategy has given rise to some challenges that can be mitigated by the use of very precise wording and thoughtful research design.

Theory Building From Cases: Opportunities And Challenges

According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

This paper reviews the literature on gender differences in economic experiments. In the three main sections, we identify robust differences in risk preferences, social (other-regarding) preferences, and competitive preferences. We also speculate on the source of these differences, as well as on their implications. Our hope is that this article will serve as a resource for those seeking to understand gender differences and to use as a starting point to illuminate the debate on gender-specific outcomes in the labor and goods markets.

/pdf/gender-differences-in-preferences-1wffy691ko.pdf

Gender Differences in Preferences

Companies are increasingly asked to provide innovative solutions to deep-seated problems of human misery, even as economic theory instructs managers to focus on maximizing their shareholders' wealt

Misery Loves Companies: Rethinking Social Initiatives by Business:

Much of the prior research on interorganizational learning has focused on the role of absorptive capacity, a firm's ability to value, assimilate, and utilize new external knowledge. However, this definition of the construct suggests that a firm has an equal capacity to learn from all other organizations. We reconceptualize the firm-level construct absorptive capacity as a learning dyad-level construct, relative absorptive capacity. One firm's ability to learn from another firm is argued to depend on the similarity of both firms' (1) knowledge bases, (2) organizational structures and compensation policies, and (3) dominant logics. We then test the model using a sample of pharmaceutical–biotechnology R&D alliances. As predicted, the similarity of the partners' basic knowledge, lower management formalization, research centralization, compensation practices, and research communities were positively related to interorganizational learning. The relative absorptive capacity measures are also shown to have greater explanatory power than the established measure of absorptive capacity, R&D spending. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3094223.pdf

Relative absorptive capacity and interorganizational learning

Evaluating comparable worth: Three perspectives

The author offers opinions on her tenure as editor of the publication from 2005-2007. The editorial board's goals of making the publication of more professional interest, of increasing the transpar...

Time Flies When You're Having Fun: AMJ, 2005–2007

Sociological studies of markets have recognized that markets are embedded in various types of economic exchange institutions. Although a growing number of these studies have examined moral markets,...

The Resurgence of the Locavore: The Growth of Local Food Markets in the United States

Does total quality management affect applicant perceptions of recruitment and selection processes

An introduction is presented to the articles published in this issue, with an emphasis on how they relate to this being the publication's 50th anniversary issue.

Sara L. Rynes

Papers

Evaluating comparable worth: Three perspectives

Time Flies When You're Having Fun: AMJ, 2005–2007

The Resurgence of the Locavore: The Growth of Local Food Markets in the United States

Does total quality management affect applicant perceptions of recruitment and selection processes

Academy of Management Journal Editors' Forum: AMJ Turns 50! Looking Back and Looking Ahead: Editor's Foreword